Thanks. It's rather encouraging to see that there are so many here on FJ and on 4chan who agree with me. Perhaps it just needs to be our generation's "thing". First was ww2, then civil rights, then the moon, what shall our legacy be? I say it should be casting our sails to the solar winds and soaring across the ether, perhaps to finally shake the hand/tentacle/whatever of our fellow sapient brethren, all adrift in the ocean of the void, marooned together until we row to each other's little spit of rock.

Ugh. You know what really sucks? We live in the most perfect era in which we KNOW that space travel is possible, faster-than-light technology is being worked on, and we've left behind most of the worst things of the past, but we're JUST NOT THERE YET.

I imagine this is what it feels like to die about fifty feet from the summit of Everest.

Preaching to the choir. We can't even get people to accept evolution or global warming, and then THEY ******* CUT NASA. God dammit, when the hell did we give up on the future? When did we stop dreaming of tomorrow?

You wanna know what? We've got civilians going to outer space, into low-to-middle Earth orbit, and delivering supplies to the space stations. Give us just one hundred years, and we'll be out in space. You've seen Cowboy Bebop? That'll be reality inside two hundred years, easy.

Imma squeeze into the conversation here real quickly: I never watched Cowboy Bebop, but I really, really want to watch it! Where should I start? As far as I understand, there's a couple of animes, a couple of feature films and some mangas.. Where do I begin ?

You ask where is dream of star? Its drowned in light. In most towns you cant see stars thanks to all the light of lamps and bilboards etc. I live in town with 200 thousand people in middle of europe and when i look at night sky i can see only a few stars. it made me sad sometimes. But when i go to country i can see so many of them. I can see part of milky way and its wonderful but how many people do that? As majority of people live in towns where they dont see stars they dont care about them, and i think that is the problem. People dont care about it so why they leader should? Another problem i see is that when i was yonger i read a lot scifi books and i dream and imagine those places..but today? we have game with amazing graphic that can show us exploding stars and world we never imagine. so instead of imagine those places we can just look at our screen and by done with it. What i mean is that when you imagine something it last in your memory longer than when you just look at your screan and go doing something else.

It's fine, I understood you. Yeah, I guess I'm lucky in that regard. I do live out in the country, so there's always a beautiful display right above my head, bright shining gemstones scattered upon velvet black.

Yes, imagination is amazing, but to experience these things for ourselves... the Universe is far more amazing than any of us can conjure.

There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophies.

If we get past what should be easily-negligible social issues, then science and technology would accelerate much faster and bring us into an age of well-being of all kinds. I want to be alive during a major Golden Age for humanity, but instead right now we're stuck in this economic and political turmoil. But science goes on none-the-less, so we must hope and fight for brighter times.

Even if we did travel at the speed of light it would still take us over 5 years to get to alpha centauri and then another 50 years to reach the next solar system from there, space is just too big for travel to be feasibly possible without using impossible sciences like hyperspace travel.

We don't need to speak to the trees to know that perhaps we're overdoing it on consumption of resources. I think it's going to be our generation's big challenge, since none of our elders seem keen on doing these solutions, many of which have been around for decades, we're going to have to step up to the plate and hammer out a better world on our own.

So many of us are convinced it's the end. If we work our asses off, it will be. The end of a gimme gimme world, the end of mindless consumerism, the end of corporate oligarchy and apathy in face of the poor.

Thanks. It isn't easy, I have to fight my own impulses of "want-want-want" all the time. It helps to remember: "Who made this, how did it get made, why is it so cheap" and especially: "do I really need it?".

They can call me hippy for shopping at a health food store or recycling, but I like knowing what I'm putting into my body and garbage often seeps into groundwater.

excatly, I know what you mean, especially fighting the impulses.
People will judge, people will point and laugh anything that different from the mainstream but at the end of the day you are the one who is happy because you know you're becoming a better person,both physically and mentally.
I often read posts about metaphysics(?) such as about Ego (that little green monster inside each and ever one of us) or Fear. That's how I started to practice meditation.
It feels good to finally see what drives one into Light and Dark.

>There are people who are working on if not faster than light travel, then at least travel many times faster than ever possible with rockets - search Dr. Harold White, warp drive.
>There is an international, multidisciplinary initiative to put together resources for attempts at interstellar travel - search the hundred year starship initiative.
>we managed to send people to the moon with less computing power than a modern graphic calculator, and, as a professor of mine noted today, before we even figured out it was a good idea to put wheels on handluggage. We were just that damn determined.

It won't happen soon, and it won't happen easily, but don't give up hope.

Of course, somebody posted that born to early, and born to late image.
But WE lie within a "zone" as you could call it. A transition; Everyone viewing this content is privileged to live in it. We may not have been able to fight off pirates with our bare hands, or **** alien space chicks. But dammit, we'll see the beginning of a great civilization transformation.

The unfortunate thing is, this zone is dangerous. We could either nuke ourselves and a civilization will look at our dead planet. OR we could make it, and do some really amazing things.

Why can't you ******* realize that Earth is good enough. You were born at the perfect time for you. It's never gonna change and it's always gonna be that way. You're never gonna explore space, so why not explore something different, like videogames or computers or a talent. Stop being so greedy and wanting more.

We want to find more out there for a reason. Earth isn't as great as you may think. Have you ever watched Star Trek? Star Wars? Played Mass Effect? Think of all the possible worlds, galaxies, different kinds of people we could meet.

We don't wanna explore space just because of Earth having so many problems, we want to explore it because we want to find more. We want to meet new cultures, explore new planets, find ways to colonize and expand. Move our technology forward so that our children's children and future generations can live better lives.

Space travel could even save us if and when the Earth is too dangerous to live on anymore.

The place is amazing- I could spend my entire life exploring the planet. The issue is, there's too many ******* people. I wish the planets population would go down drastically within my lifetime, but I doubt that'll happen, or if it did whatever thinned it would kill me too.

You know something, I'd totally build up the influence and power needed to eliminate half of the planets population based on intellectual capacity. I'd seriously kill stupid people, wash them away like so many bugs. Issue is, I like people. I really do. I'd feel guilty for killing some of the dumbasses, just because they're nice. I'd have to figure out some system for killing them that would adhere to all of my morals, and that's incredibly difficult and costly. No, it's simply easier to sit here and play vidya games.

No, you have to think of it through ratios. We're on a website, ergo on the internet, so I can assume at least half of the people here are intelligent to some degree. 1/2. Then I can assume about 100 people have seen my comment- half of those wouldn't say anything for a multitude of reasons, and the other half may or may not agree. 1/100
You'd be 1/100 and that would be about 70 million people on my side, and I could expect more than that rough ratio to actually support it. Maybe 2/100. And beyond that, I don't really need people to believe I'm doing the right thing- I just need money. I can pull all the strings with enough cash...

Naw, I'm a writer. I consider things like these all the time, I have to consider how much evil there is in the world and how to see it, how to make it inspire fear, how to show the corruption in our minds. We exist in a perpetual tension of fear and hatred, and we can't pretend we do not- we have way too many deaths from conflict for that.

So think of me as more of an artist considering how to paint rather than someone who's looking to rid the world of stupidity.

Well, if you can type articulately I'd probably not kill you. I also worry that, while I'm a good bit above average, I'd have to have some sort of inner council of people far more intelligent than I, and then why should I be in charge rather than they?

I'm charismatic (in real life- my narcissism shows on the internet, so that's not so great), despite me talking myself down very intelligent- I've written several books and speculate that I'd be capable of being a physicist or nuclear engineer, except the work wouldn't interest me; and I'm politically savvy, (on a world wide scale, not just a continental level) so I'd be able to defuse situations and make the correct allies.

I think it would need to start in the east. More than enough civil upset there to hide whatever I would feel the need to do, and besides, that's the highest concentration of people.

Well there you have it, I can't see why they wouldn't let you lead.
Ahhhh. I'm a 17 year old with a passion for science (hopefully leading to a career in medicine), and I'm pretty much like this is in real life.

The barriers are pretty intense. What would I be leading? How would I perpetuate my ideas on the populace? Where would I get funding? There's so many intense barriers that are directly related to funding, it makes the whole idea nearly impossible.

As for an army... How would I truly make an army to destroy the ilk if I was to kill them? Surely my army would be almost entirely composed of the kind of people I would wish to get rid of.

Well excuse me if I want to build a better world. Excuuuuse me if I don't want to be satisfied with what I have. It's not greed, it's wonder, curiosity, the spirit of adventure.

Perhaps some of us see how good things are and think: why stop here? I'm glad you're happy, perhaps it is a curse to dream so big, all I know is, as the sun finally cools into cinders, I shall be the one to etch requiscat in pacem for it. As I blow the dust off the chisel, I shall turn and look upon a magnificent span of worlds, full of all God's children, from beast, to human, to any other life out there.

We're all so obsessed with what Heaven is like, perhaps instead of waiting to die, we should endeavor to forge Paradise ourselves, carved from the bones of the Earth if need be. Is this so bad? Is it so wrong to not desire a better world for our children and grandchildren, for all kindred of the Earth?